Preprocedural Platelet-to-Lymphocyte and Platelet-to-Neutrophile Ratios as the Predictors of Local Recurrence Following Ultrasound-Guided Microwave Ablation for Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the present study was to demonstrate the role of blood parameters as a potential prognostic factor for local recurrence (LR) after ultrasound (US)-guided percutaneous microwave ablation (MWA) of colorectal liver metastases (CRLM).
METHODS: Between February 2016 and February 2020, 76 patients with US-guided percutaneous MWA of the CRLM were analysed. The patients with LR were included in first or study group (15 patients) and the patients with no evidence of LR were included in second or control group (20 patients). The following blood parameters obtained from the blood sampling at the day before the MWA treatment were also recorded: Haemoglobin (gr/dl), neutrophile (uL), lymphocyte (uL) and platelet (10^3/uL) counts, platelet distribution width (PDW) (fL) and red cell distribution width (RDW) (%) values. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and platelet-to-neutrophile ratio (PNR) were calculated.
RESULTS: The mean PLR was 129.9 (97.6-197.7) and 92.1 (83.7-117.7) in the study and the control group respectively and we found statistically significant association between the groups (p=0.036). The mean PNR was 61.4 (49.5-68.5) and 44.35 (38-55.3) in study and control group respectively A statistically significant association were also seen between these two groups (p=0.003)
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: In conclusion, this study suggests that CRLM patients with elevated preprocedural PLR and PNR values are more inclined to local recurrence after US-guided MWA. This simple and costless way can be easily used in order to predict the local response of the thermal ablative treatments in routine clinical practice.